All:
Why is console Management for Openvms a priority or not? Especially
with the Itanium MP console - and with Virtual VMS.. Why would you
care? Is it a security issue, compliance issue, operations issue or
simply you what to know what comes off it? I'm really interested in
your thoughts.

Those of you that know me know that I am very interested and provide a
Console Management solution, ConsoleWorks that runs on OpenVMS.  As we
continue to support the product and actually build out capability for
console management - I am interested in why you believe its important
and why you need it. Those thoughts help TDI build out our roadmap and
product feature set.


Thanks in Advance!!
Bill Johnson

nine seven 2 eight ate won one fife five three  office

On Oct 24, 3:37=A0pm, Bill Johnson <baron.pi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> All:
> Why is console Management for Openvms a priority or not? Especially
> with the Itanium MP console - and with Virtual VMS.. Why would you
> care? Is it a security issue, compliance issue, operations issue or
> simply you what to know what comes off it? I'm really interested in
> your thoughts.
>
> Those of you that know me know that I am very interested and provide a
> Console Management solution, ConsoleWorks that runs on OpenVMS. =A0As we
> continue to support the product and actually build out capability for
> console management - I am interested in why you believe its important
> and why you need it. Those thoughts help TDI build out our roadmap and
> product feature set.
>
> Thanks in Advance!!
> Bill Johnson
>
> nine seven 2 eight ate won one fife five three =A0office

Also:  If you have a console management solution, how do you use it -
what else do wish it could do to make your job easier? If you could
make it do one more thing what would that be?

Thanks Much!
Bill

On Oct 24, 3:39=A0pm, Bill Johnson <baron.pi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Oct 24, 3:37=A0pm, Bill Johnson <baron.pi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > All:
> > Why is console Management for Openvms a priority or not? Especially
> > with the Itanium MP console - and with Virtual VMS.. Why would you
> > care? Is it a security issue, compliance issue, operations issue or
> > simply you what to know what comes off it? I'm really interested in
> > your thoughts.
>
> > Those of you that know me know that I am very interested and provide a
> > Console Management solution, ConsoleWorks that runs on OpenVMS. =A0As w=
e
> > continue to support the product and actually build out capability for
> > console management - I am interested in why you believe its important
> > and why you need it. Those thoughts help TDI build out our roadmap and
> > product feature set.
>
> > Thanks in Advance!!
> > Bill Johnson
>
> > nine seven 2 eight ate won one fife five three =A0office
>
> Also: =A0If you have a console management solution, how do you use it -
> what else do wish it could do to make your job easier? If you could
> make it do one more thing what would that be?
>
> Thanks Much!
> Bill

I was hoping this group would be more active for this question. I cant
say much more than this - but if console management for OPenVMS was a
concern and you had a chance to influence TDI and HP - what would you
tell them?

What would you want in a solution?
-User Interfaces
-Features
- Etc

You may reply to me personally if you like bill dotjohnsonattdi
technologies  com

or drop a note here simply saying your not interested - that counts as
well.

Bill Johnson wrote 2011-10-28 16:02:
> On Oct 24, 3:39 pm, Bill Johnson<baron.pi...@gmail.com>  wrote:
>> On Oct 24, 3:37 pm, Bill Johnson<baron.pi...@gmail.com>  wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> All:
>>> Why is console Management for Openvms a priority or not? Especially
>>> with the Itanium MP console - and with Virtual VMS.. Why would you
>>> care? Is it a security issue, compliance issue, operations issue or
>>> simply you what to know what comes off it? I'm really interested in
>>> your thoughts.
>>
>>> Those of you that know me know that I am very interested and provide a
>>> Console Management solution, ConsoleWorks that runs on OpenVMS.  As we
>>> continue to support the product and actually build out capability for
>>> console management - I am interested in why you believe its important
>>> and why you need it. Those thoughts help TDI build out our roadmap and
>>> product feature set.
>>
>>> Thanks in Advance!!
>>> Bill Johnson
>>
>>> nine seven 2 eight ate won one fife five three  office
>>
>> Also:  If you have a console management solution, how do you use it -
>> what else do wish it could do to make your job easier? If you could
>> make it do one more thing what would that be?
>>
>> Thanks Much!
>> Bill
>
> I was hoping this group would be more active for this question. I cant
> say much more than this - but if console management for OPenVMS was a
> concern and you had a chance to influence TDI and HP - what would you
> tell them?
>
> What would you want in a solution?
> -User Interfaces
> -Features
> - Etc
>
> You may reply to me personally if you like bill dotjohnsonattdi
> technologies  com
>
> or drop a note here simply saying your not interested - that counts as
> well.

Not much input maybe, but...

I/we used the old "Console Manager" sometimes in the early 90's.
Worked OK and it was "good enough" for what we needed then.

There are two main uses as I see it.
- Keeping an on-disk log of console activity.
- Enabling remote access to the console.

The first isn't that important (to me). And if I need a log
of, say, a boot, I attach my laptop and save the output
using Reflection.

The second can easily be solved using a simple terminalserver
attached to the console (serial) port.

And finaly, many modern boxes has various built-in console
features often with direct TCP/IP connectivity.

On 10/28/2011 10:02 AM, Bill Johnson wrote:
> On Oct 24, 3:39 pm, Bill Johnson<baron.pi...@gmail.com>  wrote:
>> On Oct 24, 3:37 pm, Bill Johnson<baron.pi...@gmail.com>  wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> All:
>>> Why is console Management for Openvms a priority or not? Especially
>>> with the Itanium MP console - and with Virtual VMS.. Why would you
>>> care? Is it a security issue, compliance issue, operations issue or
>>> simply you what to know what comes off it? I'm really interested in
>>> your thoughts.
>>
>>> Those of you that know me know that I am very interested and provide a
>>> Console Management solution, ConsoleWorks that runs on OpenVMS.  As we
>>> continue to support the product and actually build out capability for
>>> console management - I am interested in why you believe its important
>>> and why you need it. Those thoughts help TDI build out our roadmap and
>>> product feature set.
>>
>>> Thanks in Advance!!
>>> Bill Johnson
>>
>>> nine seven 2 eight ate won one fife five three  office
>>
>> Also:  If you have a console management solution, how do you use it -
>> what else do wish it could do to make your job easier? If you could
>> make it do one more thing what would that be?
>>
>> Thanks Much!
>> Bill
>
> I was hoping this group would be more active for this question. I cant
> say much more than this - but if console management for OPenVMS was a
> concern and you had a chance to influence TDI and HP - what would you
> tell them?
>
> What would you want in a solution?
> -User Interfaces
> -Features
> - Etc
>
> You may reply to me personally if you like bill dotjohnsonattdi
> technologies  com
>
> or drop a note here simply saying your not interested - that counts as
> well.

DEC/Compaq/H-P has or had Polycenter Console Manager.  The product name 
was subject to changes, without notice, by DEC/Compaq/H-P marketing).  I 
used to program it to call my pager or cell phone when the system needed 
"professional help".  If the system was still functional I could dial in 
and, usually, fix the problem on the spot.  It saved a good deal of time 
and mileage!

Bill Johnson wrote on 24/10/2011 :
> All:
> Why is console Management for Openvms a priority or not? Especially
> with the Itanium MP console - and with Virtual VMS.. Why would you
> care? Is it a security issue, compliance issue, operations issue or
> simply you what to know what comes off it? I'm really interested in
> your thoughts.
>
> Those of you that know me know that I am very interested and provide a
> Console Management solution, ConsoleWorks that runs on OpenVMS.  As we
> continue to support the product and actually build out capability for
> console management - I am interested in why you believe its important
> and why you need it. Those thoughts help TDI build out our roadmap and
> product feature set.
>
>
> Thanks in Advance!!
> Bill Johnson
>
> nine seven 2 eight ate won one fife five three  office

For me it sure is critical. Working in the finance industry, capturing
and recording all what happens on the console interface is essential.
Getting access to the console from our desktop devices, or even 
remotely
(from home, from a portable over 3G connectivity, whatever) is 
essential
too. And we even use it for automation : as an example, requests for
mounting tapes are trapped from the console and transmitted to the
tape robot manager to mount them automatically, and that kind of 
things.
So it is definitely something I would have a lot of difficulties to
live without.

In order to achieve that we currently use this :
http://www.open-vms.nl/COCKPIT.pdf
It is marketted by a third party company but the maintainers are
HP employees based in Belgium. I do not know whether it has gained
much audience overseas, but in Europe, quite a lot of OpenVMS shops
are using it.

Before that, we were using the set of Polycenter products. Cockpit has
replaced Console Manager and Watchdog. We still use the ex-polycenter
- now from CA - products for performance and scheduling.

-- 
Marc Van Dyck

On Oct 29, 9:15=A0am, Marc Van Dyck <marc.gr.vand...@invalid.skynet.be>
wrote:
> Bill Johnson wrote on 24/10/2011 :
>
>
>
>
>
> > All:
> > Why is console Management for Openvms a priority or not? Especially
> > with the Itanium MP console - and with Virtual VMS.. Why would you
> > care? Is it a security issue, compliance issue, operations issue or
> > simply you what to know what comes off it? I'm really interested in
> > your thoughts.
>
> > Those of you that know me know that I am very interested and provide a
> > Console Management solution, ConsoleWorks that runs on OpenVMS. =A0As w=
e
> > continue to support the product and actually build out capability for
> > console management - I am interested in why you believe its important
> > and why you need it. Those thoughts help TDI build out our roadmap and
> > product feature set.
>
> > Thanks in Advance!!
> > Bill Johnson
>
> > nine seven 2 eight ate won one fife five three =A0office
>
> For me it sure is critical. Working in the finance industry, capturing
> and recording all what happens on the console interface is essential.
> Getting access to the console from our desktop devices, or even
> remotely
> (from home, from a portable over 3G connectivity, whatever) is
> essential
> too. And we even use it for automation : as an example, requests for
> mounting tapes are trapped from the console and transmitted to the
> tape robot manager to mount them automatically, and that kind of
> things.
> So it is definitely something I would have a lot of difficulties to
> live without.
>
> In order to achieve that we currently use this :http://www.open-vms.nl/CO=
CKPIT.pdf
> It is marketted by a third party company but the maintainers are
> HP employees based in Belgium. I do not know whether it has gained
> much audience overseas, but in Europe, quite a lot of OpenVMS shops
> are using it.
>
> Before that, we were using the set of Polycenter products. Cockpit has
> replaced Console Manager and Watchdog. We still use the ex-polycenter
> - now from CA - products for performance and scheduling.
>
> --
> Marc Van Dyck- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

We've been using Itheon's iAM:Consoles (I know it's a daft name!) -
was Robocentral - for many years for string detection and remote
access.

It's done a sterling job and interfaces to the alerting system quite
neatly.

On Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:37:44 -0700 (PDT), Bill Johnson <baron.pilot@gmail.com> wrote:
>...
> Those of you that know me know that I am very interested and provide a
> Console Management solution, ConsoleWorks that runs on OpenVMS.  As we
> continue to support the product and actually build out capability for
> console management - I am interested in why you believe its important
> and why you need it. Those thoughts help TDI build out our roadmap and
> product feature set.

I'm curious.  What advantage does this product have over
using conman or conserver running on a linux server
connecting to a terminal concentrator like an Avocent/Cyclades
CS4016 whose ports are connected to the serial consoles
of, say, AlphaServers?

-- 
Dale Dellutri <ddelQQQlutr@panQQQix.com> (lose the Q's)

On Nov 1, 10:50=A0am, Dale Dellutri <ddelQQQl...@panQQQix.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:37:44 -0700 (PDT), Bill Johnson <baron.pi...@gmail=
..com> wrote:
> >...
> > Those of you that know me know that I am very interested and provide a
> > Console Management solution, ConsoleWorks that runs on OpenVMS. =A0As w=
e
> > continue to support the product and actually build out capability for
> > console management - I am interested in why you believe its important
> > and why you need it. Those thoughts help TDI build out our roadmap and
> > product feature set.
>
> I'm curious. =A0What advantage does this product have over
> using conman or conserver running on a linux server
> connecting to a terminal concentrator like an Avocent/Cyclades
> CS4016 whose ports are connected to the serial consoles
> of, say, AlphaServers?
>
> --
> Dale Dellutri <ddelQQQl...@panQQQix.com> (lose the Q's)

I use Consoleworks to access the console on my one remaining
alphaserver.    I can definitely say that my life would be worse
without some kind of solution to provide connectivity to the Alpha
console.    I'm not a huge ConsoleWorks advocate, however it is what I
have, and it works fine, so I am a happy camper.

Dave.

On Tue, 01 Nov 2011 08:01:05 -0700, Dave wrote:

> On Nov 1, 10:50 am, Dale Dellutri <ddelQQQl...@panQQQix.com> wrote:
>> On Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:37:44 -0700 (PDT), Bill Johnson
>> <baron.pi...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> >...
>> > Those of you that know me know that I am very interested and provide
>> > a Console Management solution, ConsoleWorks that runs on OpenVMS.  As
>> > we continue to support the product and actually build out capability
>> > for console management - I am interested in why you believe its
>> > important and why you need it. Those thoughts help TDI build out our
>> > roadmap and product feature set.
>>
>> I'm curious.  What advantage does this product have over using conman
>> or conserver running on a linux server connecting to a terminal
>> concentrator like an Avocent/Cyclades CS4016 whose ports are connected
>> to the serial consoles of, say, AlphaServers?
>>
> 
> I use Consoleworks to access the console on my one remaining
> alphaserver.    I can definitely say that my life would be worse without
> some kind of solution to provide connectivity to the Alpha console.   
> I'm not a huge ConsoleWorks advocate, however it is what I have, and it
> works fine, so I am a happy camper.
> 

I did a prolonged evaluation and subsequent implementation of ConsoleWorks 
in 2003.  We didn't have any Linux systems available back then, and were 
still on NT 4 plus Netscape on our PCs, so wanted the ability to do the 
monitoring from VMS boxes as far as possible.  At that time, ConsoleWorks 
would support Netscape 3.03 on VMS, even with the dated Javascript it 
understood.

Our requirement was to monitor both system consoles and disk/tape 
controllers via serial lines to terminal servers. We took a conscious 
decision to use an out of band product rather than relying on network 
resources on the machines being monitored, and this was one of 
ConsoleWorks' advantages.  IIRC CockpitMgr Manager became available 
around that time, but we'd already started down the ConsoleWorks route 
(think corporate decisions here, they take time).

During the evaluation period TDI were very responsive to bug reports and 
enhancement requests that I filed.

TDI were also trying to sell us various files containing all the error 
messages and suggested severity levels to match against, but we had 
already built up our own for an in house product, so didn't bite here.

I will mention something that had me biting my lip at the time though. 
During my evaluation Bill Johnson kept posting here on comp.os.vms 
offering a discount if we signed by the end of the month.  I knew that 
wasn't going to happen the way our corporate wheels turned, and I managed 
to keep to my estimate to the UK salesman that the whole process would 
take no more than 6 months.  FFS it took 6 weeks to organise a formally 
approved test environment, based on existing kit (it had to come off 
someone else's budget, and appropriate firewalls had to be closed off for 
someone else then opened up for me before I could start using it).

-- 
Paul Sture